Stagg High freshman arrested after shots fired

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - A Stagg High freshman has been arrested by Stockton Unified police officers for firing a gun several times near the school's campus last week, district spokeswoman Dianne Barth said Tuesday.

The Record

STOCKTON - A Stagg High freshman has been arrested by Stockton Unified police officers for firing a gun several times near the school's campus last week, district spokeswoman Dianne Barth said Tuesday.

The district did not provide the name or age of the male student.

According to Barth, trouble began with a fistfight on the levee along Brookside Road near Stagg after school let out Thursday afternoon.

After the fight broke up, one of the students jumped into a car and fired an unknown number of shots into the air as the vehicle drove off. Other students also were in the car, district police said, but it is unclear whether they will face any consequences, Barth said.

The boy was arrested within 24 hours of the shooting, but the weapon has not been recovered, and the district did not provide information on what type of gun was fired, according to Barth, who added that the suspect is facing felony charges for firing a gun in the vicinity of a school.

A 15-year-old girl who was among a group of onlookers during the incident suffered a minor, grazing injury to her foot. The girl was treated at a hospital Thursday evening and released.

Stagg was locked down for 45 minutes following the gunfire. It had been locked down for 90 minutes Thursday morning while police searched the campus for weapons after a student reported seeing other students looking at a gun at a nearby convenience store. No weapons were found.

The Thursday afternoon incident at Stagg was the fourth involving a firearm at or near a Stockton Unified campus this academic year.

On Oct. 8, two boys were arrested when one of them fired a .22-caliber handgun into the floor of a crowded seventh-grade classroom at Van Buren Elementary. No one was injured.

Eighteen days later, district police officers discovered two pellet guns that had been brought by eighth-grade boys to Cleveland Elementary.

And on Nov. 1, a 14-year-old freshman at Merlo Institute was arrested after he was found in possession of a loaded semiautomatic handgun.